John Donne: The Creator of Metaphysical Poetry

John Donne is recognized as being the poet who broke the Petrarchan tradition in England and created a new style of poetry: Metaphysical (The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 581, 585-586; TNAEL throughout). Metaphysical poems are not a completely new branch of poetry, but an extension of the point of the Elizabethan tradition (pg. 581, 585-586). “The Sun Rising,” by John Donne, is divided into three stanzas, each ten lines long. The rhyme scheme in each stanza is ABBACDCDEE. Lines one, five, and six are metered in iambic tetrameter, line two is in dimeter, and lines three, four, seven, eight, nine, and ten are in pentameter.

“The Sun Rising,” is a vivid lyrical poem envisioning a pair of lovers being entire worlds unto themselves. The poem begins with a couple lying in bed. The speaker scolds the rising sun, calling it a “busy old fool,” and asks why it is bothering them through the windows and curtains (line 1, 589). The devoted and trustworthy lovers are in so much love that nothing else matters. The speaker personifies the sun, and talks to it throughout the poem. As the sunlight beams through the windows, the speaker tells the sun to let them be, and leave them alone. He says that love is not a subject of seasons and time and he forcefully tells the sun, the “Saucy pedantic wretch,” to go irritate late “school-boys” and sour apprentices, to tell the “court huntsmen that the King will ride,” and to call the “country ants” to their harvesting. He feels that their life together is perfect, and that the sun is annoying (lines 5-8, 589). The speaker concludes the poem by telling the sun to shine only on himself and his lover. By doing so, he says, the sun will shine on the entire world as well.

Then, in the second stanza...

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...pond to the speaker’s speech while trying to get rid of the sun. The speaker then feels out-played and gives up trying to get rid of the sun, and has no choice but to allow the sun to stay and shine.

“The Sun Rising,” by John Donne is a metaphysical lyrical poem about two lovers who are in bed together and are interrupted by the sun. The diction and sounds of the poem flow well, throughout with a lot of anger in the beginning, and lightens towards the end. The imagery in the poem is strange and over-exaggerated, while the tone progresses from an “annoyed” to an “understanding/aggravated” attitude. There is a transition in the “annoyed” and “understanding/irritated” tones, when the speaker gives up on trying forcing the sun leave and lets it stay. “The Sun Rising,” is one of the various entertaining, metaphysical poems by John Donne that are intricate and enjoyable.